BMW s future-proof EV strategy
BMW’s ‘future-proof’ EV strategy
BMW is hedging its bets on the future by planning combustion, hybrid and electrified versions of its core nameplates – with all three varieties capable of coming from the same assembly line.
The idea, BMW executives say, is to ripple production among powertrain types according to the quirks of the market. Today`s uncertain forecasts for electrical vehicles are the motivator.
«Nobody knows how many electrified vehicles you`ll sell in 2020, two thousand twenty one and 2025,» BMW CEO Harald Krueger said. «You don`t know how many plug-in hybrids you will sell, and you don`t know how many combustion engines you will sell. The only reaction is plasticity [to] produce all three.»
The treatment can help the automaker avoid having to idle some factories while other plants can`t keep up when request diverges from forecasts. The strategy also calls for BMW to develop «future-proof» platforms that can treat electrical powertrains as well as combustion engines.
The X3 crossover and 3-series sedan are among the very first vehicles likely to suggest all available powertrain types. BMW has confirmed it will introduce an electrical X3 in 2020, and an electrical three series is expected in two thousand nineteen or 2020, after the compact sedan is redesigned. Both the X3 and three series will stir to BMW’s CLAR cluster architecture, a very supple vehicle platform that permits for any of the planned powertrains.
“The strategy for the future is to integrate all drivetrains, whether it’s purely battery-electric, whether it’s a hybrid or a purely combustion engine,” said Oliver Zipse, BMW AG board member in charge of production. “You will see battery-electric right after diesel right after hybrid on the assembly line. That’s the only way we think to react to the necessary plasticity because we don’t know the request.”
The treatment is a major departure from the philosophy employed today. When BMW launched its i3 electrified compact and i8 plug-in hybrid sports car in two thousand thirteen and 2014, it created dedicated production systems in its Leipzig, Germany, assembly plant.
“It was a plant inwards a plant, so to say,” Zipse recalled. “Downright separated. That is not our strategy for the future.”
Moving to the fresh integration concept will require investment in BMW’s assembly plants, Zipse said. For example, figure shops need to make switches to fit big, vapid battery packs into the floor of the vehicle. The company would set up a side line inwards the figure shop to assemble the differently shaped floors, and everything would then come together in the main framing station, he said.
Because EV batteries are so mighty – around nine hundred to Two,000 pounds – having battery assembly on-site or very close to the assembly plant also is significant, Zipse said. That will avoid the cost and complexity of having to ship such a mighty component.
BMW’s plant in Spartanburg, S.C., is kicking off down the path toward a more nimble production system. The plant assembles the X5 crossover, with a plug-in hybrid variant already integrated into the production line, Zipse said. “You can do the same thing with a purely battery-electric,” he said.
The plant has produced about 25,000 plug-in hybrid X5s since production began in 2015, said Knudt Flor, CEO of BMW Manufacturing Co. in Spartanburg. Battery production already is done on-site for that vehicle.
Going forward, Spartanburg will be configured to assemble EV versions of its vehicles. BMW assembles the X3 through X6 crossovers in Spartanburg and will add the X7 large crossover in late 2018.
Spartanburg will be able to produce the utter range of combustion, plug-in hybrid and electrified powertrains with coming models, Flor said. The X3 would be a “good option” for the treatment if there’s request for that powertrain range, he added.
“Everything depends on what the customer requests, but then we need to be able to integrate very swift,” Flor said. “We need to have this production-ready.”
Even with the plan for electrical versions of its core models, BMW will proceed its i electrical car subbrand. The next fresh i nameplate will be the iNEXT, with advanced autonomous driving features, in 2021.
But BMW doesn’t want to split all EVs into a separate line, Krueger says.
“What might happen is, you can ruin the brand,” Krueger said. “You have your old-fashioned business and a modern business, and in inbetween, you’ve killed the brand.”
